Out & About: Prepare for season with Hunting 2012

SPECIAL SECTION – Read the latest reports and information about hunting in the Inland Northwest in the Hunting 2012 tabloid section coming Thursday in The Spokesman-Review.

Cyclist clarifies survey results

OUTPEDAL – Last Sunday’s blurb about a Mount Spokane State Park mountain bike survey incorrectly stated the percent of respondents who said they had experienced user conflicts on park trails.

While 74 percent of the survey participants said biking was the trail activity they most enjoy, 21 percent said they had experienced trail-user conflicts at the park, says a survey report.

But even that corrected 21 percent number is overstated, said Jonathan Price of Evergreen East, a mountain biking group. Comments on the responses indicated some people were referring to winter conflicts between groups such as snowmobilers and skiers, he said. They apparently didn’t understand the survey was targeted primarily to cycling to explore what types of bike trail opportunities cyclists would like to have at Mount Spokane.

Price said the cycling community needs to be more actively involved in park planning and development.

“There’s a lot of misunderstanding,” he said.

“This week, I was one of the volunteers helping the park obliterate an unauthorized trail. I don’t know who built it, but if you look at the park’s 2009 comprehensive plan, that trail is on the map as a proposed safer alternative to the steep, eroded 101 trail that goes down the fall line (from Bald Knob).

“So we were up there decommissioning a trail that was already mapped out.”

Eliminating bighorns to spare sheep?

OUTCRY – While some Western ranchers want wolves eliminated to spare their herds, a Wyoming lawmaker wants the option to remove a herd of 40 bighorn sheep from U.S. Forest Service lands in southeastern Wyoming if necessary to protect local sheep ranchers.

Sen. Larry Hicks, (R-Baggs) says he’ll propose the option for removing the Carbon County herd to the Legislature next session.

The Biodiversity Conservation Alliance of Laramie is pushing a lawsuit against the Forest Service challenging its decision to allow continued domestic sheep grazing in the area.

Wildlife veterinarians have shown that domestic sheep can pass diseases to bighorns.

Last call to ride Hiawatha Trail

OUTCYCLE - The Route of the Hiawatha Trail rail trail near Lookout Pass, with tunnels and trestles popular with bicyclists, is scheduled to close for the season next Sunday.

The trail is open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Info: skilookout.com.